To Not Understand the Sexual laws in the UK?

Based on but not about the thread on the 15 year old who has recently run away/been abducted to France with her teacher.

There seems to be lots of contradictory information going on, and I just cannot get my head around it. Are the laws around sexual relationships and age of consent really all that complicated?

For example, it has been said that if a girl who is under 16, has a sexual relationship with an adult man (am thinking over 18 as from what it seems its all different again if he is under 18 but over 16) it is automatically considered rape because under 16s cannot legally consent. Is this true?

I was having sex way before 16 and on occasion with men over 18, I would happily testify to this day I was not raped, taken advantage of etc, but would the law still feel differently?

Yes. The same as if you were very drunk and a man had sex with you, it would be considered rape because you were not able to give consent. a person under 16 can not consent.Its very difficult to prosecute though without the cooperation of the underage girl.

Its not that difficult. You said it yourself, under 16s can not consent and, tbh, just because you did it doesn't make it ok. I say that as someone whose boyfriend was 26 when I was 15. I would not have considered it rape at the time. But now it makes me feel sick to think about him. He groomed me into thinking I wanted to.

It is an offence to have sex (various acts specified) with someone under 16. The precise offence will depend to on the circumstances (including age of both parties). The sentencing guidelines give greater penalties to offences against people under 13.

fwiw the laws around sexual misconduct are fairly clear - the 2003 Act collected together a whole host of other Acts, going back to 1936.

The more significant issue is 'how they are applied'. The case of the teacher and 15 yo girl is a 'good case' that demonstrates how tricky, and poss not in the 'best interest of the victim, it can be to apply them.

In the eyes of the law you are not a child at 14 - you can legally make SOME desicions for yourself without your parents knowledge if you are deemed Fraser Competant by the health professional - counsellor - whatever.

As Mrsbiggs says, there's no defence to having sex with someone under 13 eg that the dependent thought they were older/able to consent. In Scotland both the male and female would be considered to have committed an offence where one, other or both were under 16 though young people close in age wouldn't be likely to face prosecution. In the rest of the uk it's the male partner who would be committing an offence.

In the case of the teacher there's an added complication in that its an offense for an adult considered to be in a position of authority over a young person to have a sexual relationship with them while they are under 18 - the age of consent doesn't apply in the same way because of the misuse of power inherent in such a relationship.